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Terror Tales II
Terror Tales II is a horror-anthology film released in 1996, and is a sequel to the 1992 film. Unlike the first which was an independent production shot with a small budget, the film had involvement from major studios and was made for theaters. The film was somewhat better received than the first but it wasn't a financial success. Plot Intro The mother (now named Margot), evades the freak show runner from the ending of the previous movie. She has lost her arm and is partially blinded in the midst of her escape from him and she takes shelter in a remote home owned by Mr. Simm (Eddie Bracken). He informs Margot that the phone line is down and that the nearest police station is miles away. Mr. Simms tells her to wait in his home until the lines become open again and he keeps her interest up by telling her some stories. Mirror Mirror Jenna Meyer is a troublesome little girl who antagonizes her parents regularly. Desperate, they recruit a therapist who turns out to be a gypsy. The gypsy (named Griselda) gives Jenna a mirror and leaves. The mirror doesn't display her reflection (instead a plethora of smoke), but when she's alone, her reflection is present and the reflection warns her that if she doesn't change her ways, she will take her place in the real world, as only one of them could exist. Jenna attempts to change her ways, but soon returns to her old ways after putting up with too much. The reflection takes her place and her parents are unprepared for the new Jenna. The two decide to send her away, believing her to be suffering from some kind of mental issue, and the reflection immediately catches on to why Jenna was so quick to give up her chance. The reflection pleads with Jenna to return to the real world, but Jenna refuses. The reflection runs away as the parents try to sedate her and she plummets down a flight of stairs. The mirror world changes to one similar to the real world, but Jenna's parents in this world share her vile personality. She takes this opportunity to learn to be a good person, fully embracing a chance at redemption. Cast * Mary Kate Olsen: Jenna * Ashley Olsen: Jenna's reflection * Bea Arthur: Griselda * Jeff Conaway: Ralph * Lily Tomlin: Betty Static Marc Anderson is a bitter TV critic who's shows live or die by his reviews. He is vehemently against adaptations of older works or remakes of older shows, with which he holds a remake of a childhood show, The Beyond, to a very negative degree and he rants about the show on a constant basis, to the annoyance of his friends, his wife and his boss. Marc visits a video store, where a clerk points him to a tape containing an unreleased episode of The Beyond, which he immediately buys. After angering his wife, Charlene, by forcibly commandeering the TV, he puts the tape in and sees a black and white rendition of his kitchen. Marc calls his wife in to show her but all she sees is static. Marc keeps watching and sees a man enter the kitchen. He goes into the fridge and pulls out a slice of pie, which he takes a bite into before putting it back. Charlene discovers that a pie she was saving has been bitten into and Marc is blamed. He looks outside for the man on the TV but has no luck. Marc continues watching the video. The man goes upstairs and approaches the bathroom, brandishing a knife. Marc runs up to stop him but scares Charlene who's taking a shower. Time passes and Marc becomes lethargic from placing all of his attention on the video. He goes to shut off the TV, but the power goes out as he hits the switch. Marc goes to look for the fusebox and happens down a long corridor that leads to his kitchen, but the kitchen is set in black and white, closely resembling the area as seen on the video. Marc goes into the living room and is shocked to find that a mural in the living room (previously displaying the man) now contains him. The room begins to distort and break down as Marc cries desperately for help. We zoom out and see that Marc is in the TV, which is shut off by the man from the TV. Cast * Jeff Daniels: Marc * Kate McGregor-Stewart: Charlene * Sam Anderson: The man * Timothy Bottoms: Phil * Henry Gibson: Clerk Chopper Down Hollywood director Jim Loomis is an overly-ambitious individual who sets up a very risky stunt for a film he's working on, to the dissaproval of the others involved, especially the star who will be involved in the film, Mort Vaccaro. The stunt is shot and Mort, along with two child extras who were brought in illegally, get killed when a stunt helicopter crashes down and decapitates all three. Loomis is acquitted of all charges due to his influence. Loomis is soon put through a nightmare mirroring the fateful scene and he is later killed by Mort. Cast * Richard Karn: Jim Loomis * Greg Itzin: Mort Vaccaro Black Willow Autumn is a menopausal woman who seeks any means to have a child. Through the advice of her husband, Roy, she takes up more natural methods after her doctors were unable to help her. She takes a pill that'd help her overcome her menopause. Within a week, the pill works and she becomes pregnant, later giving birth at an alarmingly quick rate to a girl, which Autumn names Willow. A few years later, Willow, now four, kisses her father goodnight as Autumn attempts to find more info on the pill she took due to a supposed lack of ramifications. Roy tells her not to worry about it, but as he speaks he suffers a seizure and dies. Autumn calls a doctor and after doing an autopsy on Roy, he is unable to find a root cause for the death, blaming it on a surprise heart attack. Both soon discover that Autumn's house has a spider infestation and Autumn finds a spider bite on Roy. She is advised to relocate so her house could be fumigated. Autumn travels to New Jersey to stay at a boarding house ran by her father Willow goes out to play while Autumn settles in her room, where she's given a cold reception by the tenants, believing she will get special liberties since she's Walt's daughter. Meanwhile, Willow joins in a game of tag and accidentally trips on one of the boys, her face landing on his. The boy goes home and falls ill, later collapsing and dying from a seizure. Autumn is blamed for this, but Walt comes to her defense and the accusers let it slide due to a lack of evidence. Learning that Autumn's husband died and taking pity on her for the accusations, the tenants attempt to make it up to her by taking her and Willow around the countryside. They visit a zoo and Willow gives a gorilla a kiss on the cheek, it dying soon after. A female gorilla attacks Willow in retaliation, but is saved by the zookeeper who concludes the former gorilla died of natural causes. A few years later, Willow becomes a teenager and develops an interest in boys. Every boy she encounters and gets intimate with wind up dying. Willow isn't accused since the deceased were involved in acts that could've been fatal. One of the boys, Dale, survives (having put plastic on his lips and not opening his mouth) and undergoes hallucinations, slowly losing his grip on reality. The tenants learn that when Willow kisses anyone, she poisons them through her saliva, something Autumn catches onto after discovering that the spiders in her home weren't venomous. Willow refuses to listen when she's confronted over this and it leads to a fatal physical altercation where one of the tenants crushes Willow's ribcage in a fall. Dale discovers this, but having been consumed by insanity, refuses to hear the tenants out and seeks to kill them. He is forced into the cellar, where the tenants paralyze him and chain him up, while wiring his mouth shut. Autumn returns to her house after learning that it has been completely cleaned out, while the tenants set out to make up their rental payments by converting the basement into a promotional attraction featuring Dale. Cast * Neith Hunter: Autumn Dunning * David Ogden Stiers: Ronald Dickson * Melinda Dillon: Enid Dickson * Peggy Cass: Delta * Susan Dey: Hanneke * Tim Choate: Ned * Barnard Hughes: Walt Dunning * Timothy Carhart: Roy Dunning * Nicholle Tom: Willow * Jonathan Brandis: Dale Ending Margot commends Mr. Simm for keeping her safe, though he quickly accuses her of being the murderous daughter from the first film's segment Poetic Injustice. Mr. Simms is revealed to be the poet she idolized and that her assailant was a vigilante who sought to kill her without leaving any evidence. She falls into the cellar whilst trying to escape and her husband catches up to her, concluding his ceremony and sacrificing her to an unseen monster. Production Filming took place throughout Delaware County in New York, with additional filming in Sussex County, New Jersey. Reception The film earned a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, marginally better than what the previous film received. However, it was a failure at the box-office. Elliot Strange left the film industry for seven years before returning to direct the English localization of Artie Ficial. Follow-Up A third film, Terror Tales III: A New Kind of Terror was released direct to video in 2010 by Lionsgate, them having inherited Trimark's catalogue. Two additional installments were released after that one between 2012 and 2014. All three were met with very negative reviews.